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ERIC Number: EJ912365
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0269-2465
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
How Prepared Do You Feel to Teach Primary Science?
Sharp, John; Hopkin, Rebecca
Primary Science Review, n100 p5-7 Nov-Dec 2007
How happy are you about teaching science? Building on similar work from the Leverhulme Primary Project and the Primary Horizons, the authors pursued this question with 303 head teachers, science coordinators, and class teachers across England in a recent questionnaire survey. The findings point to very real progress being made in many areas of primary science education provision. This is good news for primary science and the primary profession as a whole and such findings are to be celebrated. The overwhelming majority of survey respondents (91%) not only indicated that they enjoyed teaching primary science, but when asked to rate how they felt about teaching across all National Curriculum subjects, 61% felt perfectly happy teaching science with existing knowledge and skills, whilst a further 36% felt happy knowing that they could rely on help from colleagues. Reassuringly, these figures placed science as a core subject within the National Curriculum, in third place behind English and mathematics, though the difference in perceived preparedness between science and English and mathematics indicated that it lay significantly behind. Again, reassuringly, though perhaps less so, the majority of respondents who held responsibility for primary science (28%) had actually specialised in primary science when training (25%), though slightly fewer than half of the specialists held a first degree in science itself. When asked to rate how prepared they felt to teach all thirteen science elements within the primary science curriculum in detail, outcomes revealed two features of particular interest: (1) respondents clearly perceived themselves to be better prepared to teach the more "biological" components than the "physical"; and (2) respondents felt less well prepared to teach "scientific enquiry" than might have been predicted. In this article, the authors examine the changes in teachers' perceptions of their preparedness for teaching science. (Contains 1 table.)
Association for Science Education. College Lane Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AA, UK. Tel: +44-1-707-283000; Fax: +44-1-707-266532; e-mail: info@ase.org.uk; Web site: http://www.ase.org.uk
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A